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Chicken breasts are roasted with fresh rosemary and thyme, sliced and tossed with Frank’s RedHot Original sauce.

Carrots are julienned into matchsticks and pickled in salt, sugar, vinegar and water.

Blue cheese is mixed with mayonnaise and parsley (for a little greenery).

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Celery ... well the celery is AWOL, but there are hot banana pepper rings and crispy romaine leaves in its place.

Now here’s the clever part.

These five elements are arranged on a crusty bun that has been sliced horizontally into three layers, mimicking a Big Mac.

The bottom layer (saucy chicken and banana peppers) and top layer (just bread) get toasted and then sandwiched with a cold middle layer (blue cheese mayo, pickled carrots, lettuce).

“It’s a lot of contradictory tastes and textures and flavours and temperatures,” explains Devin Connell, who created the Spicy Bird five years ago with her brother Luke Connell.

The Connells serve the sandwich at Delica Kitchen, an upscale café at Yonge and St. Clair, with a smaller takeout-oriented offshoot in Leslieville.

“The funny thing is that you’re seeing blue cheese and chicken wing sandwiches popping up everywhere now,” says Luke. “I think we were ahead of the curve. It’s definitely a bit of a fad now.”

For Devin, the Spicy Bird has a romantic connection.

She remembers making chicken wings, probably for a Super Bowl 2009 party, for her then-boyfriend (now husband) Darcy Morris.

“Chicken wings is Darcy’s electric chair meal,” says Devin. “When we were coming up with Delica’s menu, we created the Spicy Bird as a homage to that — and probably as a favour to Darcy.”

Morris is crazy about the sandwich. So are customers. Some people have even ordered trays of Spicy Birds for Super Bowl Sunday.

Luke and Devin plan to make Spicy Birds for their own parties this weekend.

“We’re both such foodies that we enjoy the lead-up to the game — the cooking — most of all,” says Luke, who hopes to fry his chicken for a change. “Neither of us is doing it because we’re Seattle fans or ... I don’t even know what the other team is.”

(It’s the Seattle Seahawks versus the Denver Broncos.)

You, too, can make Spicy Birds for the Super Bowl — or whenever you like — since the Connells have agreed to share the recipe.

I roast the chicken, mix the blue cheese mayo and pickle the carrots. Devin comes to the Star test kitchen to show me how to put things together. She brings the all-important buns — bianco rolls from Ace Bakery.

Bianco rolls are the perfect blend of crusty, chewy and fluffy but, unfortunately, only seem to be available for food service clients, not retails customers. You’ll have to substitute another 4-inch (10-centimetre) soft Italian rolls, preferably the kind with flour-dusted tops.

The Connells, it should be noted here, are the offspring of Linda Haynes and Martin Connell, who founded ACE Bakery but have since sold it.

The kids still swear by ACE breads. In fact, when Devin dreamed up Delica’s sandwiches, she already knew which bread she was going to use.

Delica serves “the familiar — with a twist.” For sandwiches, says Devin, that means “something a little more complicated than throwing together whatever’s in your fridge” — but not something intimidating.

The Spicy Bird takes a bit of prep, but it’s by no means intimidating. It’s a sloppy sandwich, but not as messy as a plate of wings. The flavours are fun and familiar.

And if you can’t bear the missing celery element, I recommend finely chopping celery leaves and using them in the blue cheese aioli instead of parsley.

Delica Kitchen’s Spicy Bird Sandwiches

The joy of these sandwiches is that you can make them in the morning, wrap them in plastic, and then disassemble them to toast the top and bottom layers when you’re ready to eat. If you don’t have a julienne peeler and don’t want to cut your carrots into matchsticks, you can now buy 10-ounce bags of “matchstix” carrots.

Lay chicken on parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet. Bake in 400F (200C) oven until internal temperature reaches 165F (74C), about 25 to 30 minutes. To serve immediately, slice each breast on the diagonal into about 6 long, thin pieces. To make ahead, cool and then refrigerate chicken in covered container overnight before cutting.

For aioli, in medium bowl, combine mayo, cheese and parsley. Mix well. Refrigerate, covered, for several days until ready to use.

To serve, you will toast bottom and top sandwich layers (not middle layer).

Place empty baking sheet or tinfoil on bottom rack of oven to catch any drips. Place 8 sandwich bottoms (with chicken layer) and 8 sandwich tops directly on centre rack. Bake in preheated 425F (220C) oven until chicken is warm and bread is toasted, about 5 to 8 minutes.

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